Three people, including two children, in Central New York died on Sunday after severe storms lashed the region with heavy rains and powerful winds that washed out roadways, toppled trees and damaged homes, the authorities said.
The deaths were the result of two separate cases of falling trees in the Town of Kirkland in Oneida County, according to its sheriff, Robert M. Maciol.
Deputies responded to a report of a tree that had fallen on a home in the town, which is about 15 miles south of Rome, N.Y. Inside the house, investigators found a woman, Shelly Johnson, 50, who was pronounced dead at the scene, the sheriff said in a statement.
The authorities were called to another tree that had fallen on a home that was occupied by a woman and her two children.
“It was reported by the caller that the roof collapsed onto her, causing her to become temporarily entrapped and she was unable to locate her two daughters,” the statement said.
Investigators found the daughters, Emily Bisson and Kenni Bisson, both 6 years old, inside the home. They were pronounced dead at the scene, the sheriff said. He attributed all three deaths to the severe storm.
Bryan Greenblatt, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Binghamton, N.Y., said that wind gusts of 58 miles per hour were reported in the wee hours of Sunday at Griffiss International Airport in Rome, and of 62 m.p.h. in the Town of Westmoreland, also in Oneida County.
The storm brought as much as 3.35 inches of rain to parts of Oneida County and 3.4 inches of rain to parts of Chenango County to the south, according to the Weather Service.
The rainfall was so intense that, for more than six hours, Chenango County was under a flash flood emergency, a rare alert for extremely dangerous, life-threatening conditions.
Fire departments in Chenango County responded to water rescue calls throughout the central portion of the county, its Office of Emergency Services said on Facebook.
Chenango County remained under a state of emergency as of 3 p.m. on Sunday, the office said. The heavy rains extensively damaged roads and bridges throughout the county, and drivers may encounter washouts or debris on the roads, the office said.
In Oneida County, more than 30,000 customers were left without power in the aftermath of the storm, County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. said in a statement.
“We are doing everything we can to respond quickly and safely to the damage left by these storms,” he said.
Christopher Mele is a senior staff editor and weekend editor on the Express desk. He previously worked on the Metro copy desk.
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